Recently I participated and got Rank 2 in Quick Code conducted by NSIT on Codechef. In the poster, they have mentioned prizes worth 25K (hopefully INR). On Codechef, they mentioned Cash prizes worth 25K.

I was excited that the prize money would be somewhere between (5K to 10K) in cash for Rank 2.But yesterday,I have mail that it was prize coupon from Codechef worth 500 and some coupon code attached(Maybe for CCDSAP).

I knew the person who got Rank 1.He has received some coupon which was expected to expire in next 8 hours from the time of receival.Later he negotiated it to 200 Codechef Laddus(a great deal I guess).

I have contacted them regarding website saying it as Cash prizes.But they were like prizes which are worth that cash.I dont know how 200 Laddus + 500 INR coupon + maybe some more prizes for ranks after 2 = 25K.

Its not that I am unhappy with the contest(The problems were okayish).Since it is a university contest, I believe there must have been funds worth 25K allocated by the management.Also NSIT is considered to be among good institutes in India.Hence, this was not expected from them.

Also people might feel, it is bad to post this way.But I think it should be addressed in public because there was no intent from their side when I called them.Also I feel Codechef takes a lot of care regarding many other aspects of external contest. Maybe its time for them to take care of this part too after the contest.Because it adds to their reputation at the end of the day.I want to make it clear that I understand it is not responsibility of Codechef.

Coming back to the Title of blog post

I do not think I will use that coupon.So I thought I will give it to a random person. Hence I created this form.I will message the 10th distinct handle who fills this form with the details of the coupon code.

PS: I have also not received some shirts from Hackerrank yet from long back(atleast 3 months old).So does anyone know how to contact them regarding this.

They could have given you anything- Codechef stickers, laddus. Anything. It's just sad that they are shoving CCDSAP coupons on people's faces and calling them prize for the contest. I understand that CCDSAP revenue may in turn help them improve Codechef, but it would have been better if they would have at least mentioned that they would be giving CCDSAP coupons as "cash prizes".

I think instead of vaguely mentioning prizes worth Rs. xyz. They should clearly mention well before the contest what is the exact prize for rank 1, rank 2 , rank 3 and more as applicable. Codechef should make this compulsory for the hosts of External Contest.

This has also happened to Enchom, he participated codechef long challenge devoted his precious time and got 2nd but no response from codechef about the price which was $300, Although they gave the price money to him, i think it's just a matter of time, so please wait!!

Um_nik Actually that was joke, bad joke. But generally you can not take all CodeChef contests for serious — I learnt it after 2 months of competing (and now after 5years situation is same ). Regular rounds are really good too me, other contests have one-two good tasks from time to time.

Nah, unfortunately I am not much into organizing so I don't have any contact points. But I too have had bad experiences with NSIT competitions.

For e.g. The whole technical fest was cancelled after getting postponed twice without proper communication. In a past competition with 10K prizes they just gave Rs 400 cash and disappeared saying some magical seniors will appear and provide them.